Table 4.
Reasons for medical toxicology consultation
| N (%) | |
|---|---|
| Intentional exposure—pharmaceutical | 3,445 (40.1) |
| Unintentional exposure—pharmaceutical | 851 (9.9) |
| Drug abuse—illicit drug | 692 (8.0) |
| Adverse drug reaction (ADR, undesirable effect of therapeutic drug use) | 412 (4.8) |
| Unintentional exposure—nonpharmaceutical | 410 (4.8) |
| Not documented | 361 (4.2) |
| Intentional exposure—nonpharmaceutical | 351 (4.1) |
| Unidentified agent | 272 (3.2) |
| Drug abuse—prescription drug | 266 (3.1) |
| Organ system dysfunction | 256 (3.0) |
| Withdrawal—ethanol | 186 (2.2) |
| Interpretation of toxicology lab data | 154 (1.8) |
| Alcohol (ethanol) abuse | 148 (1.7) |
| Envenomation—snake | 147 (1.7) |
| Environmental evaluation | 143 (1.7) |
| Withdrawal—opioid | 117 (1.4) |
| Adverse drug event (ADE, medication error resulting in harm) | 107 (1.2) |
| Occupational evaluation | 91 (1.1) |
| Withdrawal—sedative/hypnotic | 52 (0.6) |
| Drug abuse—OTC drug | 50 (0.6) |
| Envenomation—spider | 43 (0.5) |
| Envenomation—scorpion | 16 (0.2) |
| Withdrawal—other | 13 (0.2) |
| Envenomation—other | 6 (0.1) |
| Marine/fish poisoning | 6 (0.1) |
| Withdrawal—cocaine/amphetamine | 3 (0.1) |